The Judgment of Paris

1645/1646

Claude Lorrain

Painter, French, 1604/1605 - 1682

Three women, one man, and a winged child gather near a cave opening within a vast, distant landscape in this horizontal painting. The people are small in scale, taking up the lower left quadrant of the composition, and all have pale skin. Near the lower left corner, the man sits on a rock with his back mostly to us, so we see him in profile. Red cloth drapes around his hips and legs, and his chest and arms are bare. He braces a long staff in his far hand, and raises his right hand, closer to us, and points at the women. He is cleanshaven with a straight nose, closed lips, and brown, shoulder-length hair. To our right, two women stand and one sits on a cloth-covered rock. All three have brown hair that has been pulled back. They also have straight noses, and their lips are parted. The woman at the center of this trio wears a coral-red dress under lapis-blue cloth that drapes across her legs and is held in one hand. Smoke-blue fabric billows behind her. She stands with her body angled to our left, and she looks down at the man in profile. The back of one hand, to our right, rests near that hip, holding the fabric, and she points up with the index finger of her other hand. A peacock with its tail fanned open stands next to her, to our left. The other two women are nude except for a white cloth that partially covers the soft, rounded contours of their bodies. To our left of the peacock and close to it, the second woman holds her drapery so it covers her breasts and her groin. Her body faces us, and she turns her face to look at the central woman. A nude, winged child holding an arrow stands between her and the man. A blue ribbon across the child’s chest holds a quiver of arrows on his back. The third woman is to our right, sitting on a rock draped with a goldenrod-yellow cloth. A white cloth covers her hips, and she leans forward, touching her sandal. A long lance rests under the yellow cloth, and a metal helmet with a red feather sits next to the rock. Six sheep lie or graze along the grassy ground, closer to us. The rocky outcropping with the cave opening rises steeply along the left edge of the composition. A waterfall is tucked into shadows just beyond the cave, and tall trees enclose the left half of the scene. Nearly reaching the top of the canvas, the cluster of trees near the center have dark green canopies. A rocky bank is shown nearly in silhouette in the lower right corner, in front of a deep landscape with a body of water winding through low, marshy areas and a flat-topped formation. Mountains are hazy purple in the deep distance. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and the sky above has mauve-pink and lavender-gray clouds sweeping across a vivid blue sky.

Media Options

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Like his compatriot Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain forged his career in Rome. Claude's vision of the Roman countryside is grounded in a careful observation of nature, but he transformed the landscape into a timeless, idealized world through his masterful rendering of sunlight and strict structuring of space.

The Judgment of Paris is one of the best known Greek myths. The goddess Strife threw a golden apple marked "to the fairest" amidst the gods and Jupiter selected Paris, a Trojan shepherd, to award it. Each goddess tried to influence Paris with a special gift. Minerva, depicted here with a spear at her side, offered him victory in war. Juno, attended by her regal peacock, offered to make him ruler of the world, while Venus, accompanied by Cupid, proposed the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris chose Venus who then led him to Helen of Sparta, which precipitated the Trojan War.

Although the subject is suitable to history painting, the figures are relegated to the left-hand corner of the composition, making it clear that Claude's real interest was the landscape. The viewer's eye slowly moves from the tree in the extreme right foreground to the massive green trees in the middle ground. A winding river leads through the background until the mountains disappear in an atmospheric haze. Like Poussin, Claude has ordered nature -- here through parallel interlocked planes of space.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 36

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 112.3 x 149.5 cm (44 3/16 x 58 7/8 in.)
    framed: 143.5 x 182.3 x 8.6 cm (56 1/2 x 71 3/4 x 3 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1969.1.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned by François du Val, marquis de Fontenay-Mareuil [1594-1655], Rome and Paris. Le Danois, Paris, by c. 1740. Angran, vicomte de Fonspertuis, by 1747; (his sale, E.F. Gersaint, Paris, 4 March 1748 and days following, no. 426).[1] purchased by Agard or Devins. Mr. [possibly W. or John] David, London; (his sales ["A Merchant of Respectability"], Christie's, London, 17 July 1819, no. 58, not sold, and 26-27 May 1820, 2nd day, no. 114); Urbino Pizzetta, London.[2] acquired 1912 by the father of Miss V. Price, England; by inheritance to her; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 6 July 1966, no. 9); (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London); sold 13 February 1969 to NGA.
[1] On the painting's early history, see Marcel Röthlisberger, "Claude Lorrain in the National Gallery of Art," Report and Studies in the History of Art 1969, and Marcel Röthlisberger, Claude Lorraine: The Paintings, Vol. 1, New Haven, 1961: 254-255, no. LV94. Le Danois is recorded in the second index of the the Liber Veritatis, c. 1720. See also the provenance supplied by the Thomas Agnew and Sons invoice of 24 March 1969 (in NGA curatorial files).
[2] Information about the 1819 and 1820 sales, and the purchaser in 1820, was provided by Lady Dorothy Lygon of Christie, Manson & Woods, letter of 21 September 1971 to J. Carter Brown (in NGA curatorial files). Pizzetta's collection was sold at Christie's on 15-16 April 1825, but the NGA painting was not listed in the catalogue, which identifies the seller as "Deceased."

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1969

  • In Memoriam, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, unnumbered checklist.

1982

  • Claude Gellée dit Le Lorrain: 1600-1682, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1982-1983, no. 34, repro.

1988

  • The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 53, fig. 99.

2006

  • Claude Lorrain - The Painter as Draftsman: Drawings from the British Museum, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006-2007, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 104.

Bibliography

1829

  • Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 8(1837):241, no. 94.

1961

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel. Claude Lorrain: The Paintings. 2 vols. New Haven, 1961 (reprint New York, 1979): 1: 254-255, no. LV94.

1966

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel. "Judgment of Paris by Claude." The Burlington Magazine 108 (June 1966): 316-317, fig. 51.

1969

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel. "Claude Lorrain in the National Gallery of Art." Studies in the History of Art (1969 - 1970): 34-57, figs. 14, 17 (detail).

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 72, repro.

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel, and Doretta Cecchi. L'opera completa di Claude Lorrain. Milan, 1975: no. 158, repro.

1977

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel, and Doretta Cecchi. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Claude Lorrain. Paris, 1977: no. 158, repro.

1978

  • Kitson, Michael. Claude Lorrain, Liber Veritatis. London, 1978: 112, under no. 94.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 73, pl. 59.

1982

  • Claude Lorrain (1600-1682): An exhibition of paintings and drawings, partly from private collections, to mark the artist's tercentenary. Exh. cat. Thos. Agnew and Sons Ltd., London, 1982: 47, under no. 22, figs. 5 (detail), 6.

1983

  • Russell, H. Diane. Claude Gellée dit Le Lorrain. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Galeries nationales due Grand Palais, Paris, 1982-1983. Paris, 1983: no. 34, repro.

1984

  • Whitfield, Clovis. "Claude and a Bolognese Revival." Studies in the History of Art vol. 14 (1984):83-91, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 310, no. 407, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 91, repro.

1989

  • Langdon, Helen. Claude Lorrain. Oxford, 1989: 88-89, 92, pl. 67.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 164, repro.

1994

  • Wine, Humphrey. Claude, the Poetic Landscape. London, 1994: 40, fig. 18.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 175, no. 136, color repro.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 20, 102-106, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20177203

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